He is a really nice guy and goes way out of his way to make sure you know whats going on. he even gives out his cell number. VERY forgiving grader

One of the best teachers I have ever had. Extremely knowledgeable, very enthusiastic about teaching and helping students. He has great vision, goes beyond course requirements. focuses on concepts and. Applies his industrial experience with lotsa ex.. very carin' patient w students! I highly recommend taking a course with him while you are at USC

He is the BEST!

An excellent professor. Always there for his students. Completely flexible with his deadlines and stuff. cares about other course too. highly recomended

The best professor! I am very happy to take course with him. He teaches great and cares about his students very much. He is always there for you. And he provides his cell phone number to his students! So that we can find him whenever we have questions. That is not every professor could do! Feel so lucky to take his course.

Dr. Nazarian explains the concepts very clearly. The lectures are fun! he has remarkable teaching skills.

Very open-minded professor. You can discuss anything with him. Also he explains things in a detailed way. You can easily understand difficult concepts. One of the best professors in USC!

great professor! very helpful!

It's hard to give a truthful review because this guy bribes you with a really nice curve. His lectures are incredibly boring (though the material is interesting) and his accent makes it worse. The homework assignments and exams severely lack clarity and there are constant mistakes. He's a really nice guy and very helpful but it can be frustrating.

Professor Nazarian cares a lot about his students. Students can call his cellphone any time and he remembers his students by name! Fantastic teaching skills. Exams are a bit tough, but grading is fair. The best Professor I have had at USC.

Super smart, very open-minded, very fun lectures! Exams and the final project were challenging, though.

Nice, young, lively, knowledgeable professor. Helpful and understanding. Lectures are fun. Homeworks aren't too hard but can be time consuming. Programming assignment can be a pain.

super talented, caring, he is the best

Loved his teaching!

He is the NICEST professor ever. He gives a really high curve for the class, is always available for help, and gives very clear instructions on what is going to be on the midterms.

He understands student needs very well. His course will be hectic but he extends deadlines if you ask. His exams are tough but he gives practice set problems to practice.

Wonderful class and professor. Was working part-time and very busy, nearly done with school and he was very willing to work with me and adjust my course load to fit my schedule. Was in he class on-site, but watched lectures through DEN. Compared to monster EE courses (454, 459) tests are easy and taken from lecture material. TAKE THIS CLASS.

very nice and helpful professor

The only professor who cares about student's welfare at USC.

Professor NAzarian cares about his students and is a very good professor who teaches with clarity. He is very helpful during his office hours and gives a good project to do as well. I highly recommend this Prof as he is one of the best at USC.

Professor Nazarian is one of the best teachers who taught me. His style of teaching makes the concept learning process very easy. I realized this during my interview, where I was asked deeply conceptual questions, but with good training and guidance I was able to make a good impression. Thanks to his efforts which made digital VLSI an easy subject

He is a very nice professor that not only helps you with the course but also gives you advice on career. Also he's generous on our grades.

Extremly helpful. Goes straight to the subject, and his explanations really make the subject matter easier to understand. However, you'll work a lot, specially on the labs and final project. Be warned!

Definitely one of the most popular Professors in the EE department. Enjoyed his class!

Taking the Verification of VLSI Systems is one of the best decisions I have made. It's a very good job fetching course and designed inline with industry requirements. Teaches a lot about SystemVerilog and UVM. Labs give insight into core concepts and you even get to interact with industry people through seminars.

Very tough class, tough assignments, however I learnt a lot from them and could apply during interviews.

He is certainly the best professor I have had in USC. His assignments and lectures are very helpful. We had to spend a lot of time on the labs and more on the final prj.

Often, he's not very clear, and it's hard to pay attention in his class. it's always a few days after the lecture that I finally understand the material and it all makes sense. However, he is always there for his students and is very helpful

Puts so much importance on practicality and basics. Teaches based on the trend of industry. He is very helpful and very humorous too!

Very passionate about the course subjects. Genuinely interested in helping students. The course is difficult, but he makes it easy by catefully explaining all concepts in class and during his plenty of office hours. Strongly recommoend to take the course with Nazarian.

+: I found his class the best in the VLSI program. his lectures and office hours helped a lot clearing my doubts. He helped me with interview prep. He is funny :)his unique sense of humor was the bonus. -: heaviest course ever. if u run out of time Be careful on extra credit labs, May not worth the challenge

Took both a and b. Great material and syllabus . Highly recommend taking them with this professor.

Excellent organization and material. Relates to students. Very helpful and caring. He was the reason for a great semester!

His level of knowledge, talents and expertise is amazing. He has all the elements a great instructor should have. He is also funny. could make a hilaroius standup comedian :))

The Professor makes sure that all students understand what he teaches in a particular lecture. He is crystal clear in his thought clarity and trains students by asking us questions as would be asked during job interviews. One of the very few professors who cares a lot for his students. Also has a great sense of humour!

Great professor! Would take his class again! Subject was difficult but he is always there for his students when we need help

Just perfect!

One of the few professors who cares about every student's progress in class. Very friendly and kind!

Great professor and person. Very funny and witty. Subject has good material on physical design and relevant lab work. Pop quizzes and early submission of labs fetch extra credit.

Excellent professor

We were taught a lot of things that are needed in the industry. The Professor makes sure you're busy the entire summer as the course is filled with labs, homework and projects. But he guides you through it all and works hard than all of us ! :) Well timed deadlines. His deadlines are close by but he extends them if the whole class is struggling.

Covers various aspects of verification. Professor Nazarian took extra effort to make sure every student in class clears the topics. Great communication with students.

Even though his labs and projects are really heavy and time consuming, he makes sure students are given enough time to complete them. Don't take this class with more heavy courses. He is probably the only professor in USC who genuinely cares for his students. He's hilarious too. :D Attend all classes to get extra credit. Exam based grading !

Professional and passionate. Strong experience and network with industry.

One of the best professors at USC. I learnt a lot in his course.

Loved the project and labs. They were a lot of work, but I learnt a lot from them.

He is very caring. Well-respected among students. would go out of his way to help out students.

One of the best Professors at USC. Very industry oriented and really takes the effort to help each and every student. Course load is high but definitely learnt a lot from the course.

I took Professor Nazarian's EE599 in the summer of 2016. The course was mainly about VLSI system verification. The material of the course is great, covers everything you need to know about verification which includes System Verilog and UVM. This course greatly helps you with your further interview in the industry. Take it if you have the chance.

One of the best professors at USC. A lot of materials are covered in his course. All of the materials are very helpful for job seeking and interviewing. The course load is heavy, but I can learn a lot from the assignments. The professor is very caring and he is willing to communicate with the students.

Excellent industry oriented curriculum. Always eager to help students. Amazing lab assignments.

Very helpful. You will learn a lot about verification and it helps a lot as 70% job profiles are for verification. Also Professor is very approachable and open to discussions. Just keep working and do not worry about grades. One of the best courses at USC.

Great professor

One of the best teachers I have had in EE. Lecture style is perfect - doesn't go into too much detail yet explains the key concepts well and occasionally refers to current industry. Labs/HWs/PAs are challenging but not too tedious or hard. Extra credit available. Very accessible. Reminds everyone of academic integrity rules very often.

Rewarding. The course is mainly about verification and different kinds of it. You'll learn everything that needs to be learned for a job in verification. Lots of homework which are helpful and time-consuming and the labs which will make one understand almost all the concepts taught in the class. Prof also teaches the latest trends in the industry

The professor is pretty nice. This course may help you prepare for both academic and industrial career in the future. The imperative concepts in VLSI area like low power technology, logic effort, timing and logic design are described accurately and explicitly in this course. The projects and homework strengthen your ability of VLSI circuit design.

The professor is pretty nice. I would like to say that the course improves me a lot and guides me to the RIGHT way of logic design. All of concepts described in the course, such as verilog, synthesis, routing algorithm, physical design, clock tree synthesis, Power planning, flash memory, FSM, CDC and FIFO, are frequently asked in interviews.

I have never taken such an amazing course before. It guides me to the world of software design and strengthens my ability of coding, critical thinking and algorithmic thinking. Many concepts are covered in this course, including C/C++, algorithm, machine learning, etc. The final project is also a good chance of teamwork and exploring good topics.

Taken a variety of courses including EE580 and EE577a. Prof is really devoted in teaching new stuff. Prof is really helpful and accessible outside the class. Also worked on various research topics and papers which was really useful during interviews. Although didn't get A in 577a but this course really helped me in physical design interviews.

The best course I have taken so far at USC. Professor Nazarian is very talented in presenting difficult concepts in simple terms. I truly enjoyed his lectures and great sense of humor. Best Professor at USC!

Very helpful course. The project (25% of grade) has two parts: A basic part (20%) on a general purpose processor design using a combination of hardware and sw. Also a research part that is open-ended (5% of grade), however easy to get above 4.5%. My interviews were mostly related to what was covered in this course. Highly recommend it.

Dr. Nazarian is very caring. Tries his best to address students' concerns. He shares his phone number with everyone in class and has the highest office hours and availability among all my USC professors. The material is very tough, but sitting in his lectures helped significantly. Project and labs were extremely helpful.

Professor was very nice and helpful. Homeworks were helpful in understanding the concepts, and most importantly he cared about students and made himself very available. Held alot of review sessions for exams. The research part was the only downside of this course, not because of him, but the TA responsible for the research. Recommend him, worth it.

Graduated several years ago and now the head of a processor (physical design) team. I still refer to his VLSI material. Very industry-oriented lectures and labs. He is well-known in industry as one of the best trainers of fresh graduates in design and verification.

I am a USC grad and took his 577a&b. If you want to work at big companies, take his courses seriously. He understands the demand in industries and will prepare your interview well. He may not reply your email, but you gotta understand he works on research and dealing with more than 100 students at the same time. Fight on!

Took my best courses with him. However, this instructor makes you work, if you wanna be in the 50%+ who get A. Take the course assignments seriously, exams mostly about those assignemnts and practices

1000% devotion. Cares a lot about his students. Never seen any teacher in my life who is so dedicated to his students and class.

A great instructor for the this course which is important for interviews. Among all, the tricks he shared for sram, flip-flop design and power lectures helped me a lot while talking to a company.

Learnt the basics concepts that had not been taught properly in my previous courses. The industry-oriented lectures and assignments turned to be also valuable for job interviews. Enjoyed the project and the phython labs the best.

The best course I have ever taken with the most caring professor I have ever had. highly recommend it to any ee/ceng major; you would do yourself a favor by taking whatever Nazarian offers!! very good in explaining difficult conceptual parts and guiding you for jobs

The most rewarding course among all EE and CS courses. Professor Nazarian offers lectures that are incredibly fun and helpful. I truly enjoyed the in class discussions and programming. He not only teaches you the technical aspects of algorithms and coding, but also interview and future job tips. Definitely take him!

Professor Nazarian cares a lot about the success of his students. He makes himself available outside the class, more than any professor I have seen or heard of. Best Professor at USC. Love the project on processor design from start to end.

Perfect course to strengthen your coding. Assignments are mostly challenging with tight deadlines .. better than any other algorithm or coding. Be careful on choosing your teammates for project. They should be good, also be willing to cooperate and share their knowledge.

Professor Nazarian is very accessible to us and eager to help. Provides good advice for jobs, in additions to fantastic lectures. Takes students feedback into account in making decisions. The course assignments are great with good TA support.

Great syllabus. Includes many coding and algorithm subjects, all assignments are code or pseudocode. Cannot tell enough of how dedicated this instructor is to his course and students. Very helpful in class and outside. Office hours almost everyday. He had extra class for exam review and office hours right after till midnight. Loved the dedication

Very eager to help, very insightful lectures and material. Great sense of humor makes things fun exactly at the run times. Lots of deadlines makes us a bit anxious but he listens to our requests for extension, plus that assignments are very useful.

The lectures and assignments are very informative. Professor Nazarian provided more than 30 topics for the project from beginning and gave us a few weeks to decide which topic. The course setup is very unique and non-traditonal. Absolutely the best course in EE

A must to take for hardware srudents. Has many design and optimization topics. Professor Nazarian is open minded and bright and certainly one of the top USC instructors.

Absolutely incredible. Even as a teacher, he understands what it means to be a student in the modern university. Super accessible, very approachable, and genuinely wants to see students succeed. I learned so much from him. I had medical complications over the semester and he was extremely accommodating. Great teacher and great human.

Professor Shahin was the best teacher I have ever had and this course was the most amazing experience I have had in USC. The content are all about learning and interviews. He helped us a lot with jobs and interviews. The course starts very difficult, but he helped us manage. I cannot thank enough for his hard work and interview tips.

He is very friendly and positive and he making himself available all time, he emails class last at night and then answered my email at 4 morning, I really dont know when he rests. Never seen any teacher like him caring and helpful. He encouraged all to succeed with giving many interview preparation suggestions and learning tasks. fight on C++ !

Had this Professor last semester and he was one of the most clear and understanding professor I have ever had. 100% would take again.

Perfect course content and arrangement including extremely helpful logic design lectures. Had so many office hours. I have never seen any teacher as caring and honest as him. Loved this course and his intelligent teaching techniques. Loved that he understands students.

I took the course in Spring 2019. He rarely teaches 250 but I highly recommend his classes. Good review of networks and IOT stuff. In_class notes helped me a lot for later studying. He respects students and creates a setup where we focus on learning and not getting grading stress

He's just a really great professor! He's very considerate and understanding. I would definitely take one of his classes again.

This summer session 1)He just gave us the recorded video to let us learn by ourselves. That really kills the last remaining course experience. 2) The assignments are totally awful. The only socket project is copied from somewhere and they even didn't modify correctly. But in general, he is still a good professor. I will give him 5 if I take offline

Took his summer session of EE450. He was extremely accommodating for everyone in the class that may have had issues, genuinely cares for his students and their well-being. His course isn't particularly difficult if you pay attention and put in the effort. I was worried at first about not doing well but ended up doing better than I expected!

Genuinely cares about students. The coveted material is very useful. Professor Nazarian also made himself available for subjects beyond the requirements of the course, such as crypto. Offered extra lectures on those topics and also helped me with my followup questions

He understands students and tries to work with them to address our concerns. I asked for a meeting on a late night and he made himself available on the phone and then zoom right away. I am very impressed with his care for us.

Professor Nazarian truly cares about his students. He provides extensions on assignments when asked, is very lenient on grading and always makes sure to check in with the class to see how we are doing on assignments. His class is vey organized and the grading criteria is very clear. If you have the option, take his class.

Professor Shahin is the most caring professor I have ever met. He always replies to any kind of question timely. The first lab and the project can take a few days, but other HWs are easy. The exam is hard but half of the class will get an A. This semester will be the last summer EE450 he taught but I will recommend his other classes too.

Amazing professor, I really enjoyed his classes but many people would say the opposite maybe because he kinda gets kinda unstructured with his lectures. This course has heavy labs and projects but I learned a lot by putting in the hours. He is lenient with the deadlines and will extend if you ask him to. Gives a lot of tips for interviews.

Nazarian was quite the professor. He tends to go off on tangents occasionally in class and lecture. If you take the time to read the textbook, read the presentation notes, have a conceptual understanding of topics in lecture, and do all the work assigned in class, you should be well prepared for the tests. This class isn't that much work

He is by far the best professor I've ever had. very caring and intelligent. remembers the names of all his students. The part that impressed me the most was that I asked for help for my job interview. he selflessly gave me a crash course on IoT and firmware..... Whatever I was asked was amazingly part of this tips.

Dr. Nazarian is the example of the ideal prof. Classes are interactive with Q&A and live coding. Assignments help w/ practical aspects of programming. loved the class activities on sorting algorithms.. at times fires up the class with his spontaneous jokes!! exams were from lecture and practice sets. very easy grader, lenient. 120% recommended!

Professor Shahin Nazarian is very caring and understanding, he provides extensions, available for office hours, and humorous. His course provides a lot of important content and is lenient with grading.

Nazarian really grew on me over the course of the semester. His class feels less structured in terms of homework and exams but if you put in the time to go over the content you can learn a lot. As others have mentioned, he is very lenient with extensions and grading and is caring. The labs touched on many topics and were pretty interesting.

He is indeed a good person, but not suitable for teaching. You can even skip attending any of his classes; just memorizing his PowerPoint slides is enough to earn an A.

Professor Nazarian is very generous in giving marks and considerate of the students' demands

He is a good professor and I learned a lot!

Professor Nazarian is not only incredibly knowledgeable but also a great teacher. He genuinely cares about his students' well-being. Beyond teaching, he provides valuable career advice and guidance. Take his class!

Shahin is an extremely caring and lenient professor who cares a great deal about his students. Deadlines are beyond negotiable and he'll try his best to help all of his students and accommodate things to needs. But he is unfortunately not the best at lecturing and could be confusing at times.

Professor is a good person but this course's lab is so bad. If you are looking for a job, just take 477 plus some logical effort knowledge in 577a is enough - not worth taking 577a. Labs are so unclear that every time you will need an English-to-English translation from TA to know what they want you to do. Also, this course is very lack of support.

I've had several one on one meetings to explore ideas for my startup company. Incredibly inspirational and also the smartest professor I've met. Like knowledge Toolbox not only in programming but also hardware and marketing aspects of engineering. He shares his own industrial experiences. He adjusts substantially based on student preferences.

Prof. Nazarian is an incredibly knowledgeable and caring instructor. While the class can be a bit unstructured at times, his willingness to accommodate students and provide helpful career guidance makes it worthwhile. I found Unstuckstudy a great supplementary study tool alongside the course material.

Prof. Nazarian is a pro at delivering advanced topics in a digestible way.. made sure we learnt every tool and step down to layout, treating us like we were all jack of all trades. He provides great tips and mock interviews. he went above and beyond to support his students.. super available and caring.

Exceptional static timing analysis, sequential logic, noise margin and design coverage. Got me ready for my interviews and secured an internship with a top company. Cadence and labs were tough, though. No complaint everything was great. I will take course he offers and I am allowed to take. He the GOAT 1000%.

Dr. Naz. is the best professor I've ever had. Super helpful for interviews. his textbook problems and the labs are very applicable to what is happening in industry. Very accessible during office hours and on phone. His time management is solid, covering as much as multiple courses! 477 was exactly what I was looking as an engineering course .

Very knowledgeable and understanding. The regular homeworks and labs that are assigned weekly forces me to study and be on track. The extra credit problems seem too challenging though. I would strongly recommend him.

He has a strong ability to present complex subjects in a way that's easy to understand, regardless of background knowledge. If found his analogies for VLSI design topics, exceptional. His industry experience adds great value to his courses. Very supportive and approachable. Definitlely the best teacher I've ever had.

I landed my summer intern thanks to him, and I know at least 5 classmates in class got jobs using his tips and lecture material. He is the algorithm whisperer ;) breaks down complex problems teaches you how to design optimal solutions like it's second nature. Amazing lectures, genuinely caring, available anytime. couldn't ask for a better prof.

Best teacher I've ever had. Very experienced and intelligent when it comes to hardware systems. My only complaint is that his lectures weren't recorded. would've been great to rewatch them.

After giving interviews for big tech, I can now really understand Professor Shahin's teaching methods. He really tries to cover everything, and dynamically changes the syllabus each semester according to what design concept was tested on in recent HW interviews. Really accessible outside the class and does care for his students.

Lectures that bordered on 1.5-2 hours were a bit of a drag and the Brightspace page is so annoying to navigate, but other than that it's a good experience. The class isn't any harder than it has to be. He really cares about his students, makes himself available, and if you're into software you could get a lot out of it career-wise.

Gained comprehensive knowledge of networks (tcp/ip) a to z. The labs and lectures significantly boosted my confidence for job interviews. ..Awesome experience, super chill and really accommodating. but he teaches 450 only in summer semesters, therefore I had to make a few changes to fit it into my summer.

very good prof.

I get why RMP is high, class has a heavy curve. Labs are such a pita with minimal feedback. Waste of time. Lecture is good and exams match lecture for the most part. Group project was a terrible experience, they should really ditch this concept at this level. Overall I'd take it again and others with Nazarian but I cringe at inflated grades.